The plane in which seven Britons died en route to Mount Everest may have been critically overloaded when it crashed and burst into flames, a senior figure from the firm that operated the aircraft said last night.

The admission from Sita Air’s marketing director Dipendra Shahi came after he was shown a picture taken by a Mail on Sunday photographer of the mound of rucksacks at the wreckage site.

Looking shocked as he studied the photograph, Mr Shahi said: ‘Personally I still believe it was a simple case of a bird strike, but it is possible that overloading played a part.’

Overloaded?: The picture of rucksacks and personal belongings found at the wreckage site in Nepal

Victims: Stephen Holding, pictured left with his wife Maggie, and Benjamin Ogden, pictured with his girlfriend Stephanie, were both killed in the plane crash that killed 19 people

Fireball: Firefighters battle to douse the burning wreckage of a plane which crashed on the edge of the Nepalese capital, killing 19 people including seven Britons

The tragedy has been blamed simply on the plane striking a bird of prey, possibly a vulture, at a height of 50ft as it took off from Tribhuvan Airport in the Nepalese capital heading for Lukla near Everest.

But experts have now cast doubt on whether that alone would have prevented the pilot from bringing the Sita Air Dornier D-228 back around for an emergency landing at the airport.

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The Mail on Sunday picture adds to growing suspicions that the pilot allowed too many passengers with too much luggage aboard – which would have impaired the aircraft’s ability to pull up out of danger.

Indian government aviation minister Suresh Acharya said that the combined weight of passengers and luggage carried by the plane would play a key part in the inquiry, which British investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch will join this week.

Mr Acharya said: ‘We have taken the load factor seriously and the fact-finding committee will most certainly look into the matter. The exact cause of the crash is still unclear.

Tragic deaths: Britons Raymond Eagle, left, and Timothy Oakes, right, were both killed in the crash

Destroyed: The fire quickly spread to the rear of the plane, but the tail was still in one piece at the scene near the Manohara River on the south-west edge of Kathmandu

‘The bird strike may not be the sole reason behind the crash.’

And Kuma Sherchan, an experienced pilot with the Nepal Airlines Corporation said: ‘A bird hitting the plane should not be considered in isolation during the investigation.

‘Several factors, such as technical maintenance, load, pressure on airline operators and many more, lead to an air crash.’

All those on board – including 12 people from Nepal and China – died in the inferno when the twin-prop aircraft ploughed into a riverbank minutes after take off.

The Britons, who arrived in Nepal on Wednesday and were due to begin trekking in the Himalayas on Friday, were travelling with Hampshire-based company Explore Worldwide.

They were named as Raymond Eagle, 58, from Macclesfield, Cheshire; Timothy Oakes, 57, from Winwick, near Warrington, and his friend Stephen Holding, 60, from Barlaston in Stoke-on-Trent; Vincent Kelly, 50, from Lostock, Bolton, and his brother Darren, 45, from Isle of Whithorn, Galloway; Christopher Davey, 51, from Moulton in Northamptonshire; and lawyer Benjamin Ogden, 27, from London. Former headmaster Mr Oakes and retired science teacher Mr Holding had been childhood friends and were members of a climbing club.

Major operation: Hundreds of rescuers and members of the public swarm around the site as investigators begin to piece together the events that led up to the tragedy

Last night Mr Holding’s widow, Maggie, said in a statement: ‘Steve always loved being in the mountains.

Traveller: Christopher Davey, 51, from Moulton in Northamptonshire, died in the crash

‘He had done a lot of work with Peak Pursuits taking youngsters on Duke of Edinburgh activities.’Mr Oakes’s wife, Angie Gaunt, 54, wept as she said he ‘died doing something he always wanted to do.’

Mr Ogden, an Oxford-educated lawyer, lived with girlfriend Stephanie Illingworth in London and worked at international law firm Allen & Overy.

Miss Illingworth said yesterday they had planned to marry and she had lost her ‘soulmate’. She added: ‘My whole world has been turned upside down.’

Relatives in Britain are likely to face a harrowing wait before their loved ones’ remains can be identified and returned home.

The pathologist conducting post-mortems and trying to identify the badly charred bodies said the process could take several days using a combination of DNA samples, dental records and matching personal jewellery.

Professor Pramod Shrestha of Maharajgunj Medical Campus described the task as ‘one of the most difficult I’ve dealt with.’

He said families in the UK had already been sent identification forms on which they list distinctive items of jewellery and consent to dental checks.

The tragedy is the latest in a series of fatal air accidents in Nepal. In the 20 years before Friday’s disaster six crashes claimed the lives of 225 people.

VIDEO: Nepalese television broadcast images of the burning plane moments after it crashed

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VIDEO: Panic and tears at crash site

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Was overloading to blame for Everest plane inferno? Photos of mound of rucksacks at crash site shift focus of Nepal crash probe